Questions about eventually upgrading to FTTP and porting phone number to VOIP

[#1]

I've been with Plusnet for about 25 years and my renewal is up in November. Openreach have not yet put FTTP in my road and their website just says some time before December 2026. I want to keep hold of my landline number and I know I will have to move to a VOIP service once the copper is turned off. I also know I can renew with Plusnet for another year and keep my existing phone line and hope that FTTP is in before the end of the 12 months.

Alternatively, City Fibre are already in my road and I could get a good deal from Sky but I really didn't want to use this service as I wouldn't be able to return to Plusnet in the future (without another installation into my house) and I have found their prices competitive. After helpng my elderly parents upgrade their BT line to FTTP it truly put me off moving to BT or EE as the service was diabolical.

I have read a few posts in these forums (admittedly fairly old) where the phone and account is terminated if and when the account holder moves from FTTC to FTTP with Plusnet and the phone number has to stop working before it can be ported to a VOIP service. Is this still the case?

What comes to mind is that there's a risk of losing the phone number altogether if things don't go to plan. Also, does it mean that my username would change and my email address too if the FTTC account is terminated?

Is it possible to port the phone number to a VOIP service at some stage and stay on the existing FTTC service and then upgrade to FTTP when Openreach lay the cables and keep my account username? I have referral credits each month on this account too.

Thank you for your assistance.

Annie

[#2]

@Annie 

While hiding your personal details can you post a screen image of the results from the following.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

I suspect you can change your PN conenction to what's known as SOGEA. This is internet without the phone. Exactly the same as you probably have now.

You cannot port the number until your account change is conmplete, You have 30 days to do so once this happens but htere would be some downtime on the phone.

Brian

[#3]

Here's a screenshot. Is it possible to swap over mid contract as I'd want to keep the phone as is for as long as possible?

[#4]

@Annie 

For the time being, you can still renew your existing FTTC + PTSN as is, but you need to do that by calling COTS.

If you doing anything which gives rise to a service change such as move your landline NUMBER to VoIP, or decide to go to SoGEA, then the "Is this a fibre priority exchange?" status will come into play.  If your exchange is fibre priority, you will not be able to order SoGEA.

If you want to keep phone and broadband together you have the option of going to EE, which is managed by Plusnet for you, there are no ETCs ... or by going to an alternative supplier such as Zen (paying any ETCs due as per contract).  When Plusnet dropped business users, I went to Zen (over BT Wholesale infrastructure), the transfer was a total non-event!  Very smooth.

EDIT: Crossing posts - FTTP is not currently available, so your options are to switch to SoGEA releasing the phone number and port to VOIP afterwards, or stay as you are on a contract arranged direct with COTS.

[#5]

Thanks @Townman 

Is COTS a department within Plusnet that I need to call? Sorry I've never heard of it.

This is all beginning to sound a bit complicated. I'm going to have to give it some thought.

I could go to Sky right away as City Fibre is already in the road and they also offer digital voice calls. However, this means I could not return to Plusnet at a later date without a new installation which I don't want. I considered Zen but they seem to be a lot more expensive.

If I leave Plusnet, is there a way to keep hold of my Plusnet email addresses as, unfortunately, the account hasn't yet moved to Greenby?

[#6]

@Annie 'COTS' is the Customer Options Team, or 'Retentions' as they are sometimes known, staffed (hopefully) by people who will do their best to give you the best advice/options. Their direct contact number is 0800 013 2632.

If CityFIbre have cabled up the road then you could explore Zen - they may be a little more expensive, but their service is way better than that of SKY, unless they have improved dramatically since my dealings with them (for other family members, not myself).

Unfortunately, iif you leave PN before your email service is transferred to Greenby, you will lose it. Which 'brand' supplies your email?

[#7]

@jab1 

Thank you for the phone number. I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

I have a plus.com email address. From the days of dial-up, I also have two other Plusnet accounts and I still have those email addresses too so I was hoping that my email account with my main broadband account could remain. It's not critical because I tend to use a separate domain name to redirect to it so I'm not sure how many people know my actual Plusnet address but it would have been nice to hold onto it. None of my accounts have moved to Greenby despite being told that the ones that were the old dial-up accounts were meant to move back in July.

[#8]

@Annie No problem - I'm (just) still here to help when I can.

FYI, the email transfer programme is a little behind, due to unforeseen 'problems'. 

[#9]

@Annie 

Thanks for the information.

Until your e-mail is migrated you cannot leave PN and keep your addresses - afterwards it's not a problem. It will only cost you £15 a year if your leave.

You have two choices with PN - renew "as is" knowing that at some point in the next year or so you will lose your landline or bite the bullet now and go to a SOGEA line and port your phone number to a VOIP provider.

I would suggest researching VOIP now so you have an idea of what's required for independant VOIP and who you might go with. Check out A&A for no other reason than yhey have a good FAQ section

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Brian

[#10]

I would suggest researching VOIP now so you have an idea of what's required for independant VOIP and who you might go with.

Be careful with independant VOIP and City Fibre!. CF use CGNAT for IPv4 which can cause problems with VOIP.

If your voip equipment is IPv6 capable then you're ok but a significant proportion of in use voip devices are IPv4 only.    

[#11]

Thank you all for your replies. There's a lot to consider.

@jab1 I seem somewhat reluctant to go with Sky. Their reviews seem bad but I know that often it's the people who have issues that leave the reviews. What sort of issues did your family encounter?

@bmc and @MisterW I used to use VOIP for business purposes with Sipgate when they did the Basic package. The numbers are different to my landline so I wouldn't be able to port my landline number across to Sipgate on the free package. I still have the eqipment but I found that the batteries in the phones used to run down all the time for some reason and I'd get cut off during a call. I also didn't think the sound quality was all that good but perhaps that is because the connection was still using copper wires from the cabinet and maybe things have improved. My equipment is the Siemens Gigaset C475-IP with an additional A510H phone and also the N300IP with the C610H phones.

I was hoping to make use of my landline Panasonic phones with an adapter and have been looking at the Grandstream HT-801 VOIP Adapter. Would this be suitable with A&A? I see that Voipfone use it. Also, does it work on Ipv6? I never even knew I was going to encounter equipment questions too lol.

[#12]

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@Annie wrote:

Thank you all for your replies. There's a lot to consider.

@jab1 I seem somewhat reluctant to go with Sky. Their reviews seem bad but I know that often it's the people who have issues that leave the reviews. What sort of issues did your family encounter?

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The were numerous ones - connection issues, account issues and others - long time ago  now, and I really don't recall the details, but I do know it cost me quite a bit of time sorting them out - and eventually moving them elsewhere.

[#13]

@Annie 

I used to use VOIP for business purposes with Sipgate when they did the Basic package. The numbers are different to my landline so I wouldn't be able to port my landline number across to Sipgate on the free package.

I still have the Sipgate Basic package and I was able to port a number in but it was nearly 5 years ago. It MIGHT still be possible

My equipment is the Siemens Gigaset C475-IP with an additional A510H phone and also the N300IP with the C610H phones.

I initially started with the C475-IP but changed to an N300IP about 3 yrs ago. I'd forget about the C475 and connect both handsets to the N300.

I was hoping to make use of my landline Panasonic phones with an adapter

If the Panasonic handsets are GAP compatible then then should also be able to connect to the N300 , although just being able to make / receive calls , no advanced functionality.

The big advantage of the N300 is that it supports multiple SIP accounts and dial plans. In my case I have both a Sipgate & Localphone account, the Sipgate is used for incoming and the Localphone for outgoing because its rates are much cheaper. The HT801 can only have one SIP account. The downside of the N300 is lack of IPV6 support although I believe the later Gigaset base units do support it. 

[#14]

My number port to Sipgate is a bit more recent, though on checking it was still 3 1/2 years ago!  All was good at that point.

[#15]

Thank you all. I will do some homework 😆